Taylor’s Reputation

Earlier today, Taylorreleased a third snake video across her socials. Then, a couple of hours later, the announcement that the new single will be out tomorrow night – which goes along with earlier theories that the song would drop on Friday, because if it happens around midnight, she gets to catch Australia and Europe just as they’re starting their Fridays.

But I’m wondering if, originally, all we were supposed to get was the snake today and if they ended up confirming it all because the leaks were getting too out of control. So here we are. Not only the confirmation that there’s a new single but also the title of the album coming November 10:

If you are a Taylor fan and you admire her attention to detail and how meticulously she prepares and strategises, you can’t call this a coincidence. You can’t raise the argument that she wouldn’t have known, that it’s an unintended resemblance. Especially not with all the snake imagery. And how that imagery is directly associated with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. And, specifically, the fact that what they were slapping at each other over was the lyrics in the song Famous, which is a track, perhaps the most notorious track on his album, The Life Of Pablo. It’s too close. It’s inextricable. That’s an interesting word too. “Inextricable.” Because, if you recall, she wanted to be “excluded from this narrative”.

At least she did a year ago.

Now she’s extending the narrative. Well of course she is. As IF Taylor Swift could ever let anything go. OK but how?

The first image that Taylor’s released of herself in a long, long time shows her in black and white newsprint behind her and covering half her face. Taken with the album title “Reputation”, the assumption here is that the album? The album is about GOSSIP. All the sh-t that’s said about her. Or at least what SHE considers to be sh-t?

This is where the safe money is. That Taylor will go back to whinging about being an innocent bystander in the gossip games of everyone else, from the tabloids to Twitter, to the internet, to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, to Kim and Kanye, and all the rest of the people in her burn book. Probably. That is, after all, the muscle she knows.

But what does that do? Wouldn’t it be great if that’s not actually what Reputation will be? What if it’s not an “Oh, poor me” but a “Yeah… and?” Because at this point, she has to know that the people who think she’s a snake will remain unmoved by the “poor me” play. More of the same isn’t going to change anyone’s mind. It doesn’t gain her anything. It’s a plateau. There’s nothing new to be achieved by playing the same card, there’s no expansion, no growth. The best you hope for in playing the same card is a reinforcement of an existing base. See also Donald Trump. Oh… but ….oh….

Is that what’s happening here?

Or will she actually surprise us and actually get real with her Reputation? Own her Reputation. That she is the headline because she makes the headline. That she IS the Gossip. That she lives the Gossip. That she plays the Gossip. That she’s here to play again.

Am I stupid for being optimistic that that’s what Reputation will be? Yeah. And I’ll call it if that happens. But, right now, I’m kinda hoping that Taylor Swift is finally ready to throw off that turban (Harry Potter reference) and wear that snake skin right out in the open.